- 17 - Petitioners' purchase of Seattle Pump stock is not a trade or business. The Internal Revenue Code does not define trade or business for this purpose. Commissioner v. Groetzinger, 480 U.S. 23, 27 (1987); Estate of Yaeger v. Commissioner, 889 F.2d 29, 33 (2d Cir. 1989), affg. T.C. Memo 1988-264. "[T]o be engaged in a trade or business, the taxpayer must be involved in the activity with continuity and regularity and * * * the taxpayer's primary purpose for engaging in the activity must be for income or profit." Commissioner v. Groetzinger, supra at 35. The ownership of stocks and bonds is not generally a trade or business under section 162. Higgins v. Commissioner, 312 U.S. 212 (1941)(managing securities investments and collecting income therefrom generally is not a trade or business, regardless of the amount invested, continuity of effort, or amount of time devoted to the activity). The purchase of the stock of one company is not ordinarily an activity of an ongoing trade or business. Id. There is no evidence that petitioners bought any stock other than that of Seattle Pump or that were in a trade or business of buying stock. Devoting one's time and energies to the affairs of a corporation is generally not, of itself, a trade or business of the person so engaged. Whipple v. Commissioner, 373 U.S. 193, 202 (1963). We conclude that petitioners held the Seattle Pump stock as an investment, not as part of a trade or business. Thus, thePage: Previous 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Next
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